Lasai

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

The Name and the Vision

Lasai means tranquil in Euskera, the language of the Basque Country — where chef Rafa Costa e Silva spent much of his formative years before returning to Brazil. That word carries the ethos of the entire restaurant: efficient, unfussy service that keeps the food as the undisputed protagonist, in a room that is welcoming and informal without sacrificing elegance.

A Counter, Two Gardens, One Menu

In 2022, Lasai made a deliberate move toward intimacy, relocating to a smaller space in Humaitá, just around the corner from its original Botafogo home. Today, just ten guests sit together at a single L-shaped chef's counter, directly facing Costa e Silva and his team as they work. The format is as transparent as the cooking: before each course, guests are shown the fresh produce in the dish and invited to smell, touch and taste the raw ingredients.

The kitchen draws from two gardens — one in Itahnangá within the city, the other in Vale das Videiras, a few hours' drive into Rio de Janeiro state. These gardens are, in the restaurant's own words, "the greatest sources of knowledge — pure inspiration." With each new season they compel the team to build entirely new menus, making repetition essentially impossible.

The 15-course tasting menu is vegetable-led, centering on seasonal, mostly organic produce alongside the freshest local seafood and select proteins. Dishes have included chayote squash with romanesco broccoli, borage and scallops, and palm heart with cashew nuts, enoki and king oyster mushrooms and sweet potato leaf. Plating is pared back and precise, in full keeping with the spare, focused room.

The People Behind the Pass

Costa e Silva handles the cooking; his wife Malena Cardiel leads the front of house with the kind of warm hospitality that makes a ten-seat counter feel genuinely personal rather than performative. Sommelier Maíra Freire pairs each menu with biodynamic and natural wines, with a strong focus on Brazilian producers — reds from Rio Grande do Sul, vermouths from São Paulo, and a mead made from wild native honey.

A Decade of Recognition

Lasai has held a Michelin Star since 2015 and has appeared on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants every year since opening. In 2024 it was named the Best Restaurant in Brazil. In 2025, it made its debut on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list — a long-awaited arrival for a restaurant that has been quietly, consistently exceptional for over a decade. The vegetable-led cooking of Rafa Costa e Silva, rooted in Brazilian soil and shaped by Basque discipline, has earned its place at the very top of the global conversation.